Fellow LUG member Kelly reports buying Minifigure Series 3 at her local TRU (Los Feliz store in SoCal in case you're wondering). They qualified for the current BOGO sale, 18 packs costed her $45 which works out to... $3 per pack? I thought they were $4 each. In any case, stay diligent and you may get lucky. And don't forget your cheat sheet.
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Permalink: http://www.fbtb.net/2010/11/30/minifigure-series-3-spotted-at-tru/

I was told there is a limit of 4 per customer at my store. Very lame. There wasn't a sign they just made it up when I went to go check out. I asked why there wasn't a sign there saying so, and they said oh there should be one there. The most annoying thing is that I waited in line for like 25 minutes to end up getting 4. I wouldn't have even bothered if I knew that.

At $3 each with the bogo it means they really are charging $4 as the standard pricing. Crazy but TRU . I did however talk to yet another Lego supplier and they did confirm that Lego's wholesale pricing is almost at $2 each so Lego did in fact jack up everyone's cost on S3. While I'd like to say their sales will suffer, I don't think overall sales will see so much as a blip. I do however think that as they raise pricing and increase supply we'll see them last on the market longer and longer (S1 = 3 weeks on [email protected], S2 = 3 months, S3 = 6 months or more??). There are even reports of S2 still showing up in retail stores which would indicate that even though [email protected] sold out weeks ago, their distribution supply is still or at least was still sending out merchandise. As many have speculated, we'll see how long this model lasts or what they do to tweak it as time goes on.

Also, I made a few comments on the other S3 page but my original dot cheat codes (like the one seen above) is still pending some updates. Most of them are correct and or at least close enough and luckily with the way they are laid out you really only need to get close to be pretty accurate.

that guy wrote:At $3 each with the bogo it means they really are charging $4 as the standard pricing. Crazy but TRU . I did however talk to yet another Lego supplier and they did confirm that Lego's wholesale pricing is almost at $2 each so Lego did in fact jack up everyone's cost on S3. While I'd like to say their sales will suffer, I don't think overall sales will see so much as a blip. I do however think that as they raise pricing and increase supply we'll see them last on the market longer and longer (S1 = 3 weeks on [email protected], S2 = 3 months, S3 = 6 months or more??). There are even reports of S2 still showing up in retail stores which would indicate that even though [email protected] sold out weeks ago, their distribution supply is still or at least was still sending out merchandise. As many have speculated, we'll see how long this model lasts or what they do to tweak it as time goes on.

Also, I made a few comments on the other S3 page but my original dot cheat codes (like the one seen above) is still pending some updates. Most of them are correct and or at least close enough and luckily with the way they are laid out you really only need to get close to be pretty accurate.

Just bought 6 series 3 minifigs at TRU in north Austin. They had two boxes out, and didn't have them yesterday. No buying limit yet....BOGO 1/2 off applied to the purchase.

I got:

FishermanGorillaCyborgCyborg (for a friend)AlienHula Girl

I wanted two fishermen, one for a friend, but ended up with the gorilla instead. Those two are very hard to distinguish by dots from each other. Both have dots that are very subtle. The others dots are much more pronounced and easier to decipher. I also wanted a Rapper, but ended up with the hula girl, the dot pattern is very similar on those two.

If you are looking for the rare fisherman, find ones that have very subtle dots, then feel for the fishing pole, which is very easy to locate by feel. FYI they were not by the registers as they were with series 2...they were on an endcap in the lego section.

Last edited by Peyote on Tue Nov 30, 2010 10:42 am, edited 1 time in total.

that guy wrote:At $3 each with the bogo it means they really are charging $4 as the standard pricing. Crazy but TRU . I did however talk to yet another Lego supplier and they did confirm that Lego's wholesale pricing is almost at $2 each so Lego did in fact jack up everyone's cost on S3. While I'd like to say their sales will suffer, I don't think overall sales will see so much as a blip. I do however think that as they raise pricing and increase supply we'll see them last on the market longer and longer (S1 = 3 weeks on [email protected], S2 = 3 months, S3 = 6 months or more??). There are even reports of S2 still showing up in retail stores which would indicate that even though [email protected] sold out weeks ago, their distribution supply is still or at least was still sending out merchandise. As many have speculated, we'll see how long this model lasts or what they do to tweak it as time goes on.

Also, I made a few comments on the other S3 page but my original dot cheat codes (like the one seen above) is still pending some updates. Most of them are correct and or at least close enough and luckily with the way they are laid out you really only need to get close to be pretty accurate.

eBay store, contact me if you'd like to perform trades from my inventory. I'm looking for original genosian fighers, second version a-wing fighters and tie bombers. I may be interested in other sets so let me know what you have.

Here's the million dollar question...if they can feel okay with charging me $3 for a single minifig and still have confidence in its ability to sell at that price to the general public, when are they going to move ALL minifig production back to Denmark?

Oh, so that's why you guys have been complaining about the minifig markup at TRU! They've always been $2.99 at mine (in Wisconsin) and I never thought a one dollar markup was that bad considering some of their other markups. Were/are they four bucks at other TRUs? TRU actually has the lowest markup I've seen. Found the previous two series at Borders for $3.99 and series 2 Shopko (a big box like store like Wal-Mart for those who don't know) for $5.99! I'll gladly pay an extra dollar to be able to know what I'm getting with the bar/bump codes instead of ordering them from [email protected] (no Lego stores near me) and risk getting multiples. Good to know Series 3 is getting to TRUs early. I'll be on the lookout!

Here's the million dollar question...if they can feel okay with charging me $3 for a single minifig and still have confidence in its ability to sell at that price to the general public, when are they going to move ALL minifig production back to Denmark?

Probably about the same time Dell stops using India for it's call centers...

My local TRU has 'em marked at $4.99 each. Luckily, the next-closest TRU still had 'em for $2.99 each. UNluckily, they had a limit of 5 per person (works not so great when they're buy one, get one 1/2 off!)

So I convinced a random family of 5 to help me out and came away with 30. There was no "code checking" involved, we just pulled them randomly from the box and ended up with: